Jewelry Ad Uses Relevance Marketing for Brilliant Differentiation

by TedV

I’ve admired for years the advertising of the Milwaukee area jeweler, Kessler’s Fine Diamonds. The owner Richard Kessler performs in his own radio ads, and in his own way he’s as good as Lee Iacocca was at Chrysler. Where as most jewelry advertising emphasizes low prices and uses the word quality as a cliche, Kessler’s uses Relevance Marketing to put substance behind their quality statements.

Each message goes out of it’s way to relate to specific factors that real recipients of jewelry will find important. They do mention great pricing – just enough to cause people who like whatever else is the main point of the ad to not necessarily want to shop around.

Kessler’s latest radio ad is so brilliant my wife herself brought it up as something I ought to write about, and she usually only pays attention to the marketing elements of an advertisement like I do once I mention them.

In this particular ad Kessler tells of newly engaged women coming to his store and ask to pay a jeweler to polish their diamond engagement rings so the stone will shine like a Kessler diamond. Of course the young ladies’ rings didn’t come from Kessler’s.

He goes on to explain how he carefully congratulates each woman on the color and clarity of her ring, and then he gentle explains that because there is more carat weight left on the part of the ring embedded in the setting, it will never be able to sparkle or shine as brightly as a Kessler diamond does.

Ted’s 90 Second 4 C’s of Diamond Quality Primer

If you start in any way to learn about diamonds, in minutes at most you will read or hear about the 4 C’s of Diamond Quality. Experts will be quick to say that the 4 C’s are not the only criteria to determine diamond value, but in practice diamonds are quite often priced (valued) solely on the last of the 4 C’s – Carat Weight. (Although complexity of the cut will often affect the stated price of a diamond ring as well.)

The 4 C’s are:

Cut – the shape, which usually in engagement rings is almost always either round, pear, princess, marquise, radiant, oval, or heart.Color – Really lack of color. The more color-less the more valuable.Clarity – Jeweler’s loupe eye view of flaws and imperfections – less is more.Carat Weight – Virtually everyone understands carat weight. It’s the first question tactlessly asked about a ring, or tactlessly stated. AND everyone always wonders “how many carats?” when they see a diamond.

Kessler’s Diamond AND Advertising Brilliance

Richard Kessler states that by adding weight to the back of the ring in the setting the ability for a diamond to sparkle is reduced. I don’t know if that’s true, but it makes some sense. I doubt he could get away with it for long if it were completely false – but I’m not the diamond police, so what do I know.

But if all of his competitors do add the weight in the back of the setting, then shoppers should infer that this weight is not only unseen, but that which is unseen adds to the cost of the ring. Additionally the cost adding unseen additional weight actually lessens a primary atribute most wearers hope for in an engagement ring – shine, brilliance, sparkle.

Based on the inference of this message, shoppers should come to Kessler’s Fine Diamonds expecting to buy a lower carat weight ring that they think will look better than a higher weight – read more expensive – ring. And though higher weight, it won’t visually please the wearer as much as the lower weight Kessler ring will.

• This is brilliant relevance marketing.

If all Kessler’s competitors only carry higher-weight-back-in-the-setting rings, Kessler’s rings can satisfy the buyer and recipient while being lower weight and therefore lower cost to produce. In fact, regardless if all other jewelers do or do not practice the higher-carat-weight-in-back approach, hopeful grooms (and brides) listening to this ad walk away convinced only Kessler’s Fine Diamonds can give them what they truly want.

• This is brilliant differentiation.

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This ad idea is an excellent use of Relevance Marketing in advertising in a highly competitive market niche. All Kessler ads feature a similar relevant idea for the satisfaction of the jewelry recipient, and just barely allude to low prices – the usual big selling point in all other jewelry stores’ ads.

Congratulations to Mr Kessler on his point of difference however I am a little lost as to where the weight is being added, is it to the underside of the setting? I guess thats not the point – he has found an area ( whether true or not) where he can distinguish his rings from the competition. It sure beats the standard cry of best service and lowest prices.

Tony – I know little of jewelry manufacture as I believe I made clear, however, the ad makes a logical presentation. Logic is only true if all the premises are true to begin with, and I cannot make judgement.